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Obama for America has already invested millions of dollars in sophisticated Internet messaging, marketing and fundraising efforts that rely on personal data sometimes offered up voluntarily — like posts on a Facebook page— but sometimes not.

And according to a campaign official and former Obama staffer, the campaign’s Chicago-based headquarters has built a centralized digital database of information about millions of potential Obama voters.

It all means Obama is finding it easier than ever to merge offline data, such as voter files and information purchased from data brokers, with online information to target people with messages that may appeal to their personal tastes. Privacy advocates say it’s just the sort of digital snooping that his new privacy project is supposed to discourage.

But this is what campaigning for president looks like in 2012. Gone are the days when campaigns cataloged voters and their preferences with index cards and filing cabinets. It’s even a quantum leap forward from 2008, when campaigns struggled to link individual voters across databases. And Republican presidential candidates are using some of the same high-tech tools.

There’s an added twist for Obama: He’s making these moves at the same moment his administration is pushing the virtues of online privacy, last month proposing a consumer bill of rights to protect it.

“All of the data used to be in different silos. You never had a central place,” said Dan Siroker, a former director of analytics for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and deputy new media director for his presidential transition team who now runs online marketing optimization firm Optimizely. “That’s different this election.”

But an Obama campaign official stressed that the campaign and DNC, which actively works to reelect Obama, meticulously protect personal data.

“This campaign has always and will continue to be an organization that respects and takes care to protect information that people share with us,” Obama for America spokeswoman Katie Hogan said. “We go to great lengths to make sure that supporters have the ability to opt out of communication and contact from the campaign.”

Obama’s campaign website, BarackObama.com, features a 2,600-word privacy policy that acknowledges, in addition to describing how it collects and uses information, that it shares personal information with some third parties, including “vendors, consultants and other service providers or volunteers” as well as “candidates, organizations, groups or causes that we believe have similar political viewpoints, principles or objectives.”

It also states that the campaign “may also collect information about the type of mobile device you use, your device’s unique ID, the type of mobile Internet browsers you use and information about the location of your device.”

For some privacy advocates, the data disconnect between Obama’s administration and campaign is tantamount to hypocrisy.

And it comes as lawmakers, regulators, companies and privacy advocates are arguing over the very meaning of online tracking and what kinds of personal information should at least be legal, if not easy, to gather.

Why does Obama use the rich elite .00000001 %ers in Hollywood who read scripts for a living and pretend to be someone else to places like Sudan ?

Mister Perceptions, when you trash rich people, it makes you sound like you are practicing the "politics of envy".............

Remember that phrase? Mitt used it in his triumphant victory speech in New Hampshire...............Apparently it didn't test well, because he stopped using it after South Carolina.............

But it's true that Clooney pretends to be someone else.............. in every movie, he plays a different character.............

Ronald Reagan also made his living that way, and MITT made it clear back in the early 90's that he was not a Reagan supporter............

But thankfully, he changed his mind.......... just like he has on the individual mandate, climate change, gay rights, abortion, gun control, and many other issues important to conservative..............

And as Christine O'Donnell said......... "he has been consistent since he changed his mind"...............

And your problems one of the ones who did NOT do you research before electing this feckless administration. How many of you did not know that Tony Rezko helped him buy his Hyde Park house like that prior poster referenced? Well shame on you, but guess what? He WILL BE VETTED this time!

I disagree completely. If you ever paid attention to Santorum before this campaign (and at some points during), the man has a permascowl. I mean the man literally always has a derisive grin on his face. Go back and watch the debates and see for yourself. Conversely, Mitt Romney is nearly always gentlemanly. His campaign does runs negative ads, and Gingrich has reason to be p***ed, but Romney always conducts himself with class. He may have changed his mind one too many times for my taste, but to assail his character in a personal way as phony is, in my estimation, careless.

We already knew that the Obama Administration is watching us. What this may come as a shock to you POLITICO is that you are enableling them and helping them. Every time you post articles bashing Conservatives, every time you post articles propping up the Obama Administration, every time you post controversial articles where people like us come and disagree with you, the administration, or end up in a fight with a liberal, OBAMA IS WATCHING!

Trust me, we knew this a long time ago! Again, only the self proclaimed "ultra smart liberals" haven't figured this out yet.

Conservatives, every time you post articles propping up the Obama Administration, every time you post controversial articles where people like us come and disagree with you, the administration, or end up in a fight with a liberal, OBAMA IS WATCHING!

So, BlueLight, when do you suppose the Obama administration will start rounding up and jailing the conservaitves who post anti-liberal comments here?

Think they'll wait until after the election, or maybe start in late October so all the jailed conservatives can't vote?

No it isn't. This is probably as scarry as losing your freedom and going to jail. The Obama administration has been watching us blog for years. They may probably know who we are, where we live and a picture of us. And POLITICO helps them. Remember, if you're stupid, you probably use the same email address to log in here that you use for your FACEBOOK page. Guess what that means?

Also remember that POLITICO is in the tank with Obama so it is easy for them to share that email with them. What do you think Obama can do once it has your email address, FACEBOOK page, and your computer IP?

This is the worst administration in the history of America when it comes to privacy, rights, and respect for the opposition. Imagine your outrage if you knew President Romney was doing this~~~ Hell, imagine the outrage of the entire MSM! Yet, very little is said about this.